Fingerpaint 2 Remember Me?
by Sinclair San Tonava
Summary: Kankuro is at Konoha Daycare. Again. He's exstatic to see his little friend TenTen again, but there's two problems: She doesn't remember him, and she's in tears. He's determined to make her happy, and help her remember him. Oneshot. Sequal to Fingerpaint.


Kankuro stared up at the building before him, and looked at his sister. "Temari, are we gonna be here for long like we were last time?" he asked. He scratched his cheek, just barely missing smudging the purple face paint there.

Temari shrugged. "I dunno. But oh well." She shoved his backpack- which she had been carrying- at him and walked up the stairs. "We'll be here for a while, just like last time."

Kankuro followed more slowly, trying to remember his last time at this place- Konoha Daycare. As he caught up to Temari, he asked, "Why isn't Dad with us this time?"

"I don't know, Kankuro!" said Temari, rather annoyed. "You'd have to ask him that..." With that she pushed open the doors of the building, and she and her brother went in.

The building hadn't changed. The walls were still colored pink, orange, and yellow. There were some new toys and less free space. Everything else was the same.

He was so caught up in looking around he was surprised when he turned and Temari was no longer at his side. At once he remembered that she was in a different room than he. He slowly walked into the main part of the room and reached into his bag. He pulled out a small wooden puppet.

Suddenly he was pushed from behind, and fell to the ground. The puppet fell from his hand and rolled away. A boy stepped on it and laughed. A chorus of laughter started up around him, and he looked up to see the same boys that had laughed at him the year before. "Hey, it's doll boy!" the biggest said.

Kankuro glared up at him and opened his mouth to speak, but another boy, the one standing on his puppet, wiped his hand across his cheek roughly, making him look at him. The boy laughed as he looked at his hand. "Look guys!" he cackled, turning his hand around to reveal a hand covered with smeared purple paint.

The boys all roared with laughter. Kankuro covered his smeared cheek his his hand and glared at the ground. A thought suddenly occurred to him. He grabbed his backpack and pulled out a wooden cat puppet. He wasn't surprised when the boys began another round of taunts and laughter, but this time he ignored it. He looked at the boy in front of him; the one that was standing on his puppet. He smirked and threw the cat at him lightly. Before it had hit him, Kankuro extended his hand, and at one chakra strings connected to the puppet. The cat's claws extended and stuck to the boy's clothing.

The boy, shocked, jumped back with a surprised yelp. Kankuro's smirk as he slowly lowered his hand. The cat ripped through the boy's shirt easily, tearing long ribbons from it. But before it got to the end of the shirt, Kankuro made the puppet jump back, landing on the ground. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed the other puppet, then turned toward the other boys as the one with a very ripped shirt ran off. The small group exchanged glances, and then ran off, toward one of the caretakers.

Kankuro quickly gathered up his things and ran away, not wanting to get in trouble. He looked around the room; the boys made up a majority of the kids in the room at the time, and all the others looked prone to pick on him, too. He frowned, and searched the room again. His gaze landed on a little girl in the corner of the room. She had with chocolate-brown hair that was in two little buns at the top of her head. She wore a pink shirt and dark green pants. She was leaning against the corner, hugging her knees. Her eyes were wet and staring out at nothing.

Something seemed familiar about her, but Kankuro couldn't quite remember. Nonetheless, he walked over to her and sat down. "Hi..." he said, smiling a little.

She didn't look up. Her wet brown eyes remained staring at nothing. She gave no recognition that he even existed.

He frowned. "Um... What's wrong?" he asked gently as he put the cat puppet back in his bag.

This time her eyes turned to him. She blinked, and looked forward again. Then she buried her head behind her knees. "I want my mommy..." she whined, barely audibly. "She's dead..."

A surge of pity washed through Kankuro. He remembered the pain he had gone through of losing his mother. He moved a little closer to her, trying to comfort her.

She turned and looked at him, and wiped a tear from her face. "Who you?" she asked.

Kankuro's eyes got wide as he saw her face. "TenTen!" he blurted out.

She cocked her head to one side. "No... I TenTen."

He shook his head, trying to think strait. "Kankuro. Hi, TenTen!" he said, smiling warmly at her.

She stared back at him blankly. "Hi..."

It suddenly occurred to him that she didn't remember him. His smiled disappeared at once. "Um... Don't you remember me, TenTen?" he asked hopefully. "I'm Kankuro!"

She blinked and shook her head.

Kankuro thought for a moment. He reached behind him for the regular puppet. "Remember this?" he asked, making the puppet dance.

TenTen watched the puppet, and giggled a little. "That funny..."

Kankuro's eyebrows rose. "So you do remember me!"

She looked at him. "No..."

He sighed, trying to think again. Then he remembered something. He put the puppet back in his backpack and searched for something else.

TenTen watched in slight fascination as he pulled out a small purple container. He opened it, and scooped the purple liquid inside onto two fingers. Then he leaned forward and started to paint her face. He painted the very same patter than she had given him, and then sat back again. "There," he said, taking out a little mirror and showing her her face.

She stared at it for a long, long moment. Her expression remained blank.

Kankuro's smiled slowly faded. He looked away dismally, sure that she hadn't remembered. He moved the mirror away and started to put it back.

Suddenly he was glomped, and mirror fell from his hand. "Kankuro!" TenTen chirped as she hugged him, smearing the partly-dried face paint on her face all over his.

"You remembered!" Kankuro laughed, hugging her back.

oOOoOOo

"Wow..." A dark-haired woman murmured. "... I haven't seen her so happy since-"

"Since before her parents were killed," the blond woman next to her finished.

The dark haired-woman paused, and then nodded. "Yes... I didn't think she could be cheered up that easily."

The other woman slowly smiled. "Sometimes, Shizori, people can just have a special affect on other people..."

Shizori looked at her curiously. "What do you mean, Tsunade-sama...?"

Tsunade smiled. "You'll find out eventually. TenTen will probably tell you all about him when you get home."

**--**

**Yes, the sequal to Fingerpaint! The idea actually came from Lai-san in the first Fingerpaint. After a while I thought it'd be a good idea, too. So here it is! Enjoy and review!**


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